Not a newbie but missing something

Not a newbie but missing something

But it still seems I'm missing something. I've started a game with the starting positions well apart from the others (specially mine). I think the difficulty is beginner, or it could be normal. Anyway.

But no matter what, I cannot defeat the Yor. They always win. Even when I cheat my butt off and the first 30 or even 50 planets are maxed out at 43, I cannot get ahead of them.

Here's how I usually set up my planets. For example, a lvl 12 planet:

2 factories

1 farm (and i've been experimenting with 2 or even 3 and tempted to go higher)

1 recruit center

unless there are special squares, the rest are divided between roughly half market, half research

(for the largest planets, i make them specialize: so for a money planet, 3 or so factories, 1 farm, recruit ctr, all the rest market, reguardless of special squares.)

According to the wiki, all military and social production points comes from factories. (implied question: am i understanding that correct?)

All money comes from markets (yes?)...*but* in the actual game, these dont have an absolute number like the factories and research bldg. Instead they say 10% bonus implying a secret (so far to me) production number that this enlarges. Do people produce this? Having more people produces more of this secret production?

I'm aware that more people produce more taxes (yes?), but do they also help make all the other things a planet produces? (including ships and buildings) I.e. would a planet with 3 factories and 4 b people produce ships and buildings faster than a planet with 3 factories and 1 b people?

Population increases taxes. The base tax rate is the square root of the population (in multiples of billions), so 1 billion is 1, 4 is 2, 9 is 3, and 16 is 4. So increasing population for taxes offers diminishing returns.

I find that that tax rates in multiples of 10 greatly increases morale loss. As such, I try to keep my taxes at multiples of 10 -1, so I would use 49% or 59% taxes.

I don't know the exact equation that is used for taxes.

High populations is hard to keep happy. I consider 25 billion to be impossible to keep happy, so I don't grow beyond 16 billion if I can help it. Usually I settle for 1 farm and 1 morale improvement per world. For capitals, I use 1 or 2 morale improvements for good measure.

Markets and other economic improvements increase the tax rate. A 10% economic bonus should increase taxes on a world by 10%. Having an economic galactic resource rated at 10% would affect all your worlds.

Population does not affect production or research.

You can get money through tourism. Each parsec (the little squares on the map) you control through influence pays tourism money. From what I understand, the total population of the galaxy is divided by the number of parsecs in the galaxy. So increasing the population of your worlds will increase tourism income. This will likely be smaller income than your taxes (unless you get a random event that radically increases your tourism income).

But no matter what, I cannot defeat the Yor. They always win. Even when I cheat my butt off and the first 30 or even 50 planets are maxed out at 43, I cannot get ahead of them.

I don't understand this.

According to the wiki, all military and social production points comes from factories. (implied question: am i understanding that correct?)

Yes, factories are good sources of production. Civilization capitals and initial colony improvements do have a base production and research rate. There are a few other improvements that also increase production and research, but they're rare.

Remember to change your spending rates. Having a lot of factories don't do you much good if your military spending is at 10%.

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Anyways, could you describe what you are doing or how you are losing? Do they have more fleets than you? Are their fleets bigger? Are their ships better? You weren't clear on how they are beating you.

I find that weapons research is expensive. Research into logistics, hull sizes, and defenses tend to be the cheaper options.